About Fastershire

About Us

Fastershire is a partnership between Herefordshire Council and Gloucestershire County Council to bring faster broadband to the two counties, with funding from central government’s Broadband Delivery UK matched by the local authorities. The ultimate aim is that by the end of 2019/20 there will be access to fast broadband for all who need it.

However, Fastershire is not only about technology, the project also includes social and digital inclusion activities, and an extensive business support programme, FasterBusiness. The programme is designed to help small and medium size businesses get the most from fibre broadband and be more competitive. In fact, it is expected that Fastershire will help to boost the local economy by £420m over the next ten years.

Fastershire will revolutionise the way that people of all ages across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire work, learn and play, and will benefit generations to come.

The Rollout

Phase 2 of the Fastershire rollout of faster broadband across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire will be based around four areas (area 1, 2, 3(A-E) & 4) and will comprise of premises that were not covered by Phase 1 or commercial rollout.

Each went through its own consultation and procurement process to secure a supplier to carry out the deployment.

Phase 2 Areas

All information, including forecast dates, is indicative only. Forecast dates may move forwards as well as backwards.

Area 1: The Cotswolds

Area 2: The Forest of Dean

Area 3A: Cheltenham and Gloucester

Area 3B: Hereford

Area 3C: South Herefordshire and Gloucestershire (west of the Severn)

Area 3D: North Gloucestershire

Area 3E: South Gloucestershire

Area 4: North Herefordshire

Area 1: Cotswolds

Gigaclear was awarded the contract to deliver phase 2 in the Cotswolds in summer 2015. The first digging for our delivery of ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premises to parts of the Cotswolds began in October 2015 and is now complete.

Area 2: Forest of Dean

We have awarded a contract to Gigaclear to deliver the phase 2 rollout in parts of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire and the Golden Valley in Herefordshire not upgraded to faster broadband in Phase 1.

Area 3(A-E) & 4: The rest of the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire

Area 3A-B (Cheltenham and Gloucester) and area 3B (Hereford)

We have awarded a contract to BT Group to deliver the phase two rollout
in these areas not upgraded to faster broadband.

Area 3(C-E) & 4: The rest of the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire

We have awarded a contract to Gigaclear to deliver the phase two rollout in these areas not upgraded to faster broadband in Phase 1.

Area 3C (South Herefordshire)

Area 3D (North Gloucestershire)

Area 3E (South Gloucestershire)

Area 4 (North Herefordshire)

To find out if your property is included in this next phase of rollout please use our address checker at the top of the page.

Fastershire Strategy

Phase 1 of the Fastershire strategy has provided
approximately 90% of the homes and businesses across Herefordshire and
Gloucestershire with access to superfast broadband and speeds of 30Mbps
or above.

Over the next two years, phase 2 of the project’s
strategy will increase total superfast coverage to around 98%, as phase 2 seeks
to provide faster broadband to premises that were not covered by Phase 1 or
commercial rollout.

Phase 2, Stage 3 – Hereford, Gloucestershire and Cheltenham

Stage 3 of the Fastershire rollout sees BT continuing to
deliver in Hereford, Gloucestershire and Cheltenham and build on their
commercial deployment.

Phase 2, Stage 3 - Rural Herefordshire and Gloucestershire

Gigaclear has been awarded the Fastershire delivery contract
for rural areas of the county.

Gigaclear is a wholesale network provider and internet
service provider (ISP) who specialise in connecting rural communities by
installing its pure fibre network straight into the property.

Pure fibre, also known as Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) offers a more future-proof solution and
broadband speeds of up to 1000Mbps. This technology is not affected by how far
your home is from the network cabinet and the connection is symmetric so you
get the same upload and download speeds.

Phase 2, Stage 4

For the remaining, hardest to
reach properties, Fastershire is using a mix of solutions, including a bespoke
grants and contract extensions.

Business Grant

Fastershire, in partnership with Connecting Shropshire and
Superfast Telford and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund,
have designed the Marches and Gloucestershire Broadband Grant.

The grant provides up to 100% of the capital installation
cost for an eligible SME that not be included in Fastershire’s main rollout and
that can demonstrate the economic return.

Viable Clusters

Fastershire has been awarded funding from the European
Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and has identified a number of
significant property clusters that could benefit from this funding.

The procurement process will be
completed very soon, with contracts awarded in the
summer of 2018 and rollout work following.

Contract Extensions

For the remaining properties, Fastershire will be exploring
possible contract extensions with BT and Gigaclear to provide access to faster
broadband.

To read more about the plans please download the full strategy, please click here.

The potential to make efficiencies and improve communications through the use of mobile technology can be significant. Improvements in performance, monitoring and day to day work routines are possible - attend the FasterFarmer's free workshop to learn how farming can harness mobile technology.

9th October, 2018

The UK biggest digital inclusion campaign, Get Online Week, returns to Herefordshire this month. Get Online Week, running from 15th to 21st October, aims to help people get started using the internet and computers.

20th September, 2018

Some of the hardest to reach homes and businesses in Herefordshire are set to benefit from faster broadband thanks to an innovative new approach.
Herefordshire Council’s broadband initiative, Fastershire has secured funding to provide superfast broadband access for some of the most remote properties in the county.

14th August, 2018

Some of the hardest to reach homes and businesses in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire are set to benefit from faster broadband as part of the Viable Clusters element of Stage 4 of the Fastershire Broadband Strategy.

29th June, 2018

Fastershire, has won the top prize at the national Connected Britain awards in London.The Connected Britain Awards aim to recognise the innovation and achievement of those companies who are at the forefront of Britain’s digital transformation.

23rd March, 2018

KemPowell, Acre Accountancy, Munday Taylor Lamont and Like Radio have become the first businesses in Herefordshire to benefit from a grant, funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Fastershire, to enable them to access superfast broadband.

13th June, 2017

Elmstone Hardwicke, Stoke Orchard, Deerhurst, Portway and Brookthorpe have been announced as the first communities in Gloucestershire that will benefit from the next phase of faster broadband rollout being delivered by Gigaclear through the Fastershire project.

9th May, 2017

Three Herefordshire businesses have benefited from improved broadband thanks to the Fastershire broadband project.
Eastnor Castle, the Land Rover Experience Eastnor and D3 Active received a grant to fund the installation of a new broadband connection from Herefordshire Council’s Fastershire project. The grant has been used to purchase three lease line providing access to 100Mbps download and upload speeds.

1st December, 2016

Gloucestershire County Council and Herefordshire Council have today recommended awarding the contract to Gigaclear to deliver phase two of the Fastershire broadband rollout in parts of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire and the Golden Valley in Herefordshire.

21st November, 2016

Visitors and businesses in Hereford will now be able benefit from free WiFi access across the city centre thanks to Faster City. The new network has been launched by Hereford City Life and is a joint partnership Fastershire broadband project, allowing shoppers and businesses access to the internet at no cost and without restrictions on time.

2nd November, 2016

The Cotswolds is the first area of the Fastershire project in phase 2 rollout and has already reached its halfway mark.
The brand new, future-proof pure fibre network has been installed directly at more than to 3,000 homes and businesses.

2nd November, 2016

Get Online Week, from 17-23 October, aims to help people get started using the internet and computers. Herefordshire Council and the Fastershire broadband project are offering a series of free training and drop-in sessions for local people across the county

31st May, 2016

Students at The Royal National College for the Blind (RNC) have been providing free internet and IT training to people who are unfamiliar with computers thanks to funding from the Fastershire broadband project.

14th August, 2015

Engineers working to deliver faster fibre broadband across Herefordshire have overcome technical challenges to enable around 1,850 homes and businesses in Bromyard to benefit from the ambitious Fastershire programme.

19th December, 2014

24th August, 2014

BT have donated satellite technology to the Fastershire campaign for use in the campaign's CREATE:Lab, a mobile training and demonstration facility able to deliver onsite support to businesses and communities across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.

4th March, 2014

18th December, 2013

A Lechlade church choir helped to sing in the changes as the town, along with Kempsford, became the first in the Cotswolds to benefit from faster fibre broadband through the county's Fastershire project.

19th March, 2013

Work has started in the first Gloucestershire communities to benefit from the ambitious, multi-million pound project to roll-out faster broadband throughout the county, BT and Gloucestershire County Council announced today.

3rd March, 2013

Work has started in the first Herefordshire communities to benefit from the ambitious, multi-million pound project to roll-out faster broadband available throughout the county, BT and Herefordshire Council announced today.

17th December, 2012

A £56.6m project to give Herefordshire and Gloucestershire world-class broadband communications within four years was announced today. It is the first broadband initiative of its type to be launched in England in which two local authorities will be working together in partnership.

Herefordshire Council and Gloucestershire County Council have recently
updated the Fastershire Broadband Strategy outlining how the project aims to
achieve the vision that… “by the end of 2019/20 all residents and businesses in
Herefordshire and Gloucestershire will be able to order the broadband service
they need and a high percentage will be using faster broadband to do more
online, boost business growth and achieve their potential”

The strategy includes a number of stages (3 and 4) which will be
delivered in part through a series of procurement exercises.

Each stage will be preceded by an Open Market Review (OMR) and state aid
Public Consultation to establish the location of existing and planned (next 3
years) commercial coverage of broadband services across the potential
intervention areas by all existing and any prospective, superfast broadband
infrastructure providers.

Stage 3

The consultation processes for all stage 3 procurements have been
concluded.

Stage 4

The Viable Clusters element of Stage 4 of the
Fastershire Broadband Strategy will be delivered in partnership with Shropshire
and Telford & Wrekin using EAFRD funding.

The Open Market Review for the Clusters closed on
November 3rd 2017.

Following a series of representations, the intended
intervention area was refined from 15,269 to 13,664 premises with one Cluster
(S11 Church Stretton) being completely removed from the project.

The Public Consultation was published on December
1st 2017 and closed at noon on January 3rd 2017.

Following further
representations two clusters (Ludlow and Burwarton) were removed in their
entirety leaving the Final Eligible Intervention Area at 13,156 premises,
mapped as follows.

An Open OJEU procurement process will follow in
early 2018 to identify a supplier or suppliers to deliver the project as a
whole or in part.

Industry Day

The partners hosted an Industry Day for potential
bidders to explain the project, introduce the selected clusters and discuss the
procurement process on Friday 10 November 2017.

Primary
School Filmmaking Competition 2018

We're inviting Primary Schools across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to take part in our filmmaking challenge to create a short film about internet.

Schools are required to produce a 30-60 second film to showcase positive use of the
internet and can be an advert, comedy, documentary, ‘how to guide’ or news
report.

The competition is designed to help demonstrates the benefits of the
internet but also to provide an opportunities for children to use the internet
as a learning tool, to search and accesses online resources to help them plan
and produce their film.

The films will be uploaded to the Fastershire website and the film with the most
views wins £200 for their school.

How
to? Storyboard

How
to? Sound

How
to? Direct

How
to? Structure

How
to? Light

How
to? Edit

How
to? Health and Safety

How
to? Camera

Faster Schools

As young people now grow up using laptops, tablets and smartphones as if they were second nature, we would like to help them share their skills by teaching a family member how to use the internet.

Fastershire can run competitions with schools across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to encourage students to teach a member of their family the basics of using the internet. At the end of the teaching, the student and the person being taught will be asked to write about the experience and what they've got out of it, and the student will submit this as an entry to the competition.

You can download PDFs of our training guides to use in training sessions or for your own learning...

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Faster broadband is being rolled out across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire between now but it is not possible to flick a switch to make every area go live on the same day and some areas will go live before this. Register your interest today and we will keep you in the loop about developments in your fibre broadband status.